Chapter 35 Psychic Detective 4
Saturday, June 20th
Although some things happened before, the study session at Kurosaki Utsuki's house started smoothly as planned.
After breakfast, while preparing for the study session and going to the convenience store to buy drinks, Kurosaki Utsuki couldn't help but recall the boy's overly straightforward words on the way home on Thursday.
I want to be friends with her...
Why? She had clearly rejected him last time. What good would come of being friends with her? He knew how dangerous her job was, didn't he?
Plus, she might become an enemy of the entire Death God Organization soon... This isn't a shonen manga where the protagonists are guaranteed to win. Even if it were, it might be a JoJo-like setting where half of the teammates die...
But……
In the end, not only did she not answer, she was unable to ask the question either, and he changed the subject.
"What should I do..."
Everything was fine yesterday, but today, they are going to be alone again... No, it seems like there are three of them today. She almost forgot that Jinpei Matsuda will be here too.
Kurosaki Utsuki's steps became lighter, but at the same time as she relaxed, she felt inexplicably a little melancholy, as if she had lost something.
·
No matter what her mood was, when she started studying, Kurosaki Utsuki easily put aside all distracting thoughts. This was a good habit she developed when she was a student of Morobushi Takaaki.
After all, high efficiency means that she will have more free time after the tutoring class - of course, this time will be given to Urahara Kisuke.
In reality, Kurosaki Utsuki isn't particularly interested in learning. Rather than relying solely on her brain to understand the world, she prefers to use every part of her body. For example, she analyzes her opponent's moves and uses her experience to adjust her body to receive or counterattack. If she can intercept the attack, she's considered a correct answer; if her deduction fails, she simply tries again.
However, working hard for a desired future is not a painful thing. She wants to study at the University of Tokyo like Morobushi Takaaki, and become a doctor like her father Kurosaki Isshin and her master Ishida Ryugen. Regardless of whether she is a Shinigami or a Quincy, she wants to live her entire life as a human being.
"Speaking of which, Kurosaki."
During a break after a short test, Matsuda Jinpei slumped on the sofa, his kitten, Maya, rubbing against his legs. Even her trimmed nails still snagged on his shorts. He didn't care, his hand still waving to her mother, Maya.
"Since you can leave your body, Kurosaki, wouldn't it be easy to sneak a peek at the exam questions in advance? The security cameras shouldn't be able to capture them, right? Does that mean you can't walk through walls?"
Kurosaki Utsuki was looking down at the answers to the three tests. The test paper in her hand happened to be Matsuda's. She crossed out a math problem before speaking. "It can pass through walls, and surveillance cameras can't capture it," she replied, then asked, "If you could make your soul leave your body, would you do it?"
The curly-haired boy didn't even look up: "No."
"Doesn't that mean we have a conclusion?" Kurosaki Utsuki put another cross on the test paper, curled her lips and took a look at Hagiwara's test paper.
"But we're not the same." Matsuda Jinpei, who had successfully called Maya to him, scooped the cat into his arms, his tone as lazy as his movements. "Kurosaki, don't you still have to protect the world? On top of that, I understand that you have the privilege of seeing the questions in advance."
The orange-haired girl glanced at him, then subconsciously glanced at Hagiwara Kenji who was pouring drinks beside her before she spoke: "We are different, but if we take the same exam, we must abide by the same rules."
She had considered cheating, but a deeper thought revealed that such a thing was completely unnecessary. Compared to fulfilling her wishes, living a "human life" fairly according to "human rules" was clearly more important.
"Eh—haven't you ever used your special abilities to break the rules?"
...That’s not the case.
For example, "Psycho-Psycho Detective Kaki Hagiwara", but this is completely different from cheating in an exam.
"Of course there is," Kurosaki Utsuki glanced at Hagiwara Kenji again, almost meeting his gaze. The second half of her sentence came out a little hurriedly, "but it won't be based on harming the interests of others."
For a few seconds after she said this, she wondered if the curly-haired boy opposite her was in awe of her - but soon, the boy put down the cat in his arms and walked over to her, his eyes falling on the last test paper she had just checked the answers on, which was her own test paper.
"...You got everything right, didn't you?!" Matsuda Jinpei raised the page in surprise and quickly scanned it from beginning to end, his eyes growing increasingly shocked. "You only got half the questions wrong on a test paper. Do you still need to worry about the final exam?"
He was wrong about half of it! His friend seemed even worse off than him. That's the expected result of missing one class a day, right?
"I don't know how difficult the exam will be. Isn't it normal to be worried?" Kurosaki Utsuki wasn't being modest. She put down her pen and stretched. The result of the test paper made her feel very good now, but after saying that, she felt that she should still be modest. "I guess I was born with all my physical strength focused on brain power."
"ha?"
Facing the curly-haired boy's face full of "You destroyed a huge monster so easily before, how could your health be low?", Kurosaki Utsuki tilted her head and explained briefly, "I was always hospitalized when I was a child."
"Eh—so that means he was suddenly chosen while lying in a hospital bed and then gained superpowers?"
"That's pretty much it."
Although the situation was definitely different from what he imagined.
Matsuda Jinpei didn't continue the topic. He picked up his test paper and returned to the sofa, covering his face with the paper, as if he was going to take a break and catch up on some sleep.
Seeing that it was almost lunchtime, Kurosaki Utsuki simply stood up, glanced at Hagiwara Kenji again, who had not joined the conversation from beginning to end, and said, "Then you should rest first. I'll go get something to eat. McDonald's?"
"No problem." The curly-haired boy replied weakly, then pointed at his friend in the air and said, "Hagi, I'll leave my share to you."
After a brief pause, Hagiwara Kenji nodded and said, "Okay."
·
In the end, they were alone again.
It is almost the end of June, and the sun is so bright near noon that one can't help but think of summer vacation.
The person next to him didn't show any intention of saying anything, so after walking out and walking together in silence for five minutes, Kurosaki Utsuki sighed deeply inwardly before finally mustering the courage to speak: "Hagiwara-san, are you angry?"
Although he didn't show it on his face, she had a vague feeling that he was in a bad mood...but she couldn't figure out the reason.
...It couldn't be that she was chatting with Matsuda Jinpei and didn't actively invite him to join the conversation, right? He wasn't a classmate from the next class who had a distant relationship with them. On the contrary, he was closer to both of them.
The young man beside him shook his head slightly: "No."
He paused for a moment, then hesitated, as if searching for the right words to describe the situation, before slowly speaking, "How should I put it... I feel a little jealous?"
Eh?
Kurosaki Utsuki's breathing hitched.
No way, no way, is he jealous of Matsuda or her?
Then, as if he had straightened out his thoughts, the young man spoke a little faster: "I remember telling Kurosaki-chan before that I hope some things are just secrets between Kurosaki-chan and me. Of course, it's just my hope. It doesn't matter if Kurosaki-chan doesn't care."
...What does he want to say?
"But just now, Jinpei-chan got ahead of me and learned something about Kurosaki-chan's childhood that I didn't know."
……so?
"Indeed, we heard what Kurosaki-chan said at the same time, but I was just listening in. That was what was being told to Jinpei-chan, so I feel a bit like I lost out..."
"I shouldn't be feeling this way, right? Jinpei-chan is my best friend, and Kurosaki-chan is the person I want to be friends with the most right now. No matter how I think about it, it's strange to feel jealous, and I'm really troubled..."
He said it again at the end: "I'm sorry, it's just a small matter. It's my own problem. Kurosaki-chan, don't worry about it at all."
Kurosaki Utsuki fell silent.
She doesn't need to care... How could she not care?
Generally speaking, would anyone express such true feelings so bluntly?
It came down on her head without any psychological preparation, just like when Urahara Kisuke used a Hadō above level 80 without giving up the chant when fighting her, and it almost stunned her.
How could he care so much about her?
After a while, the orange-haired girl with a blushing face turned her head away and said, as if giving up, "...I know. Then I'll tell you something else that Matsuda-san doesn't know yet."
"Eh? You don't have to do that—"
The boy didn't want her to be embarrassed by her voice interrupted: "So far, there are only four people who know about that matter. My father, Dean Ishida, Mr. Urahara and Miss Yoruichi. You are the fifth one."
"Kurosaki-chan..."
"It's a sequel to the earlier incident about my poor health as a child." Kurosaki Utsuki fiddled with the Quincy Cross on her wrist, her heartbeat slowing slightly as she recalled the memory. "The turning point was my mother's death."
The boy's eyes widened in surprise.
"It was a 'miracle' caused by my mother's love when she was near death, or perhaps it was some secret technique of the Kurosaki family," she continued. "In any case, my mother succeeded in allowing me to share my brother's gift. By borrowing his power, I was able to become a god of death."
"So, Kurosaki-chan lost her power because—"
"Because my brother also became a Shinigami," Kurosaki Utsuki nodded in response, "So I thought, after borrowing it for so long, shouldn't I return it all? Well, my brother can't use the part I borrowed anyway, so it's no big deal if I just keep it for now."
But one day, she will return this power completely. She hopes that by then, the "talent" that Yoruichi once said she possessed will have awakened.
"Anyway," the girl suddenly changed her tone and straightened her expression, "you have to study hard, Hagiwara-san. I don't want you to be the only one whose interests I've 'harmed.'"
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